Harry Belafonte to speak at RISD

Singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte is scheduled to speak at the Rhode Island School of Design about his life as an artist and an advocate.

Belafonte is scheduled to deliver his remarks Tuesday on the art school’s Providence campus. The address is part of RISD’s Martin Luther King Jr. lecture series.

The 85-year-old Belafonte was called the King of Calypso for bringing Caribbean music to a global audience. He was also a key figure in the civil rights movement, giving financial support to King, funding organizations like the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. He was an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.

More recently, Belafonte has worked on efforts to fight poverty and AIDS and was a vocal critic of former President George W. Bush.